Now for sale....

At Retro's on Durbin St. in Casper.

Fantastic Pumpkin Bread.

There is nothing better than the smell of fresh pumpkin bread on a cool morning.

Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread


Rated:
Submitted By: Laurie Bennett
Photo By: DetectiveL
Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 50 Minutes
Ready In: 1 Hour 5 Minutes
Servings: 24
"Spiced with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves, this bread improves with age, so plan to make it a day ahead if possible."
INGREDIENTS:
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
3 cups white sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.
3. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2011 Allrecipes.com Printed from Allrecipes.com 8/8/2011

Friday Project.

Little Girl's Ruffle Skirt with a tie back.

A touch of Robin's Egg Blue.

My project for the day: I made a little dress for a friend who is hopefully having a girl. I feel pretty good that I finished it in one day and it turned out for the most part the way I wanted it to...now to clean my seriously neglected house.

Front: Button straps with a pleated skirt.


Back: Adjustable tie.

Chocolate Souffle

Made Chocolate Souffle for the first time. Note to self: Either get deeper souffle dishes or make smaller souffles. I had no trouble getting them to rise, I just had a hard time keeping them in the dishes. But Eddie thought they were the best things I have ever made so thankfully looks are not the most important thing to him.




Chocolate Soufflé
Gourmet | February 2002
Yield: Makes 2 to 4 servings
Active Time: 20 min
Total Time: 45 min

1/3 cup sugar plus additional for sprinkling
5 oz bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped
3 large egg yolks at room temperature

6 large egg whites
Accompaniment: lightly sweetened whipped cream
Special equipment: a 5 1/2- to 6-cup glass or ceramic soufflé dish

Preheat oven to 375°F. Generously butter soufflé dish and sprinkle with sugar, knocking out excess.

Melt chocolate in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth. Remove bowl from heat and stir in yolks (mixture will stiffen).

Beat whites with a pinch of salt in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until they just hold soft peaks. Add 1/3 cup sugar, a little at a time, continuing to beat at medium speed, then beat at high speed until whites just hold stiff peaks. Stir about 1 cup whites into chocolate mixture to lighten, then add mixture to remaining whites, folding gently but thoroughly.

Spoon into soufflé dish and run the end of your thumb around inside edge of soufflé dish (this will help soufflé rise evenly). Bake in middle of oven until puffed and crusted on top but still jiggly in center, 24 to 26 minutes. Serve immediately.


Cooks'note:
•Soufflé can be assembled up to 30 minutes before baking. Keep, covered with an inverted large bowl (do not let bowl touch soufflé), at room temperature.

Epicurious.com © Condé Nast Digital, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Burlap Sack Project.

Over the past year I have somehow collected a bundle of rice and potato sacks. As I have been in need of a cheap project to distract me from the hundreds of other house projects that take a bit more funding than our limited budget allows at the moment, I dug into my deep tubs of fabric and found these burlap sacks.

I decided to make some bags and purses out of them. This is what I have so far.

Breakfast for the boys.

A special weekday breakfast to cheer up the guys.

Chocolate Hazelnut Gateau

photo by tasteofhome



Here is the link to the recipe:
http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Chocolate-Hazelnut-Gateau

or

Chocolate Hazelnut Gateau Recipe
12 Servings Prep: 20 min. Bake: 30 min. + cooling
20
30
50
Ingredients
2/3 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs, separated
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk
2/3 cup ground hazelnuts, toasted

GLAZE:
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 tablespoon water
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
Toasted slivered almonds and fresh mint leaves
Directions
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks, melted chocolate and vanilla. Combine the flour and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Stir in the hazelnuts.
In a small bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form; carefully fold into batter. Spread into a greased 9-in. springform pan. Place pan on a baking sheet.
Bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; remove sides of pan. Cool completely.
In a saucepan, bring the butter, corn syrup and water to a boil; stirring constantly. Remove from the heat. Add the chocolate chips; stir until smooth. Cool to room temperature. Spread over top and sides of gateau. Garnish with almonds and mint. Yield: 12 servings.

Nutrition Facts: 1 piece (calculated without almonds and mint leaves)equals)384 calories, 25 g fat (14 g saturated fat), 89 mg cholesterol, 256 mg sodium, 40 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 4 g protein.

I was in the mood for chocolate so I baked a cake to bring to a get together. Despite a few mistakes in mixing it turned out pretty good. I made a double layer gateau because there were going to be a lot of friends at the dinner so my filling was just a simple chocolate whipped cream filling.

heavy whipping cream
cocoa powder
sugar
Whipped till firm and then spread generously in between the layers.


I am kicking myself for not taking a photo of my final product because for the first time in my life my glazed turned out looking perfect.

New Kitchen Art

My kitchen was looking quite bare with no pictures so I painted this today to cheer up my little room.

Finally.

A dress for Lilly.
Julie picked this fabric out ages ago and I finally found time and drive to finish this sun dress.
Now I just have to get it in the mail...

Simply Soup.

I like simple and quick recipes. And this soup is perfect.

Cannellini Bean Soup.

2 x 14 oz cans chopped with herbs
9 oz cavolo nero leaves or savoy cabbage (I just used spinach)
14 oz can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
4 tsp extra virgin olive oil
ground black pepper

1. Pour the tomatoes into a large pan and add a can of cold water. Season with pepper and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer.

2. Roughly shred the cabbage leaves and add them to the pan. Partially cover the pan and simmer gently for about 15 minutes, or until the cabbage is just tender.

3. Add the cannellini beans to the pan and warm through for a few minutes. Check the seasoning, then ladle the soup into bowls, drizzle each with a little olive oil and serve immediately.

It started with a simple bread recipe.

Today was baking day. I have been wanting to make bread and finally made the time this morning. I used a simple white bread recipe:

Home-Style Yeast Bread.
3 packages active yeast
2 cups warm water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1-1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
7-3/4 to 8-1/4 cups bread flour (I used regular white flour)

1. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the sugar, butter, salt, eggs and 4 cups flour; beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.

2. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes.

3. Punch dough down. Turn onto a heavily floured surface; divide into thirds. Shape each portion into a loaf. Place in three greased 9-in x 5-in x 3-in loaf pans. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool. Yields 3 loaves.

This recipe makes 3 loaves! What would we do with that much bread! I could freeze most of it, but because Eddie is not very fond of sandwiches for his lunches I decided to try something different. I made two loaves and then use the leftover dough to make a pizza for lunch and also a few stuffed rolls. I made few pizza pockets and also used up some leftover BBQ meatloaf and made stuffed meatloaf rolls. They turned out great and will make easy lunches for Eddie. I feel like I have had a very profitable morning.

Knitting attempt: Day 1

Thanks to youtube, some yarn and random needles I had laying around the house I was able to start learning how to knit early. I still would love to buy those circular harmony needles Caroline told me about but I have to wait till I save up to afford them. Soon, but until then here is my progress.

Someday...

I would like this living room. It is as simple as that.


http://www.worldmarket.com/home/index.jsp?ab=header:logo

World Market is one of my favorites. I love their stuff!

A little dress.

I found this cute fabric at the local fabric store. On sale, always the best! And I had a great idea to make an outfit for both the girl cousins.



The little girly pair of overalls is for Lilly Dawn.



The dress trimmed in delicate lace is for Darcy Bella Jane

A few sewing projects.

And I came across the dress fabric at a thrift store and wanted to make something with it. I think it turned out pretty well...but don't look to closely.




The skirt is a birthday present for Darcy, William's cousin. Hope she likes it!

A few of my projects...

These are a couple things I have done since I had William.